Playing Dirty(49)

“Wow, you really know how to make a woman feel special,” I said in the most sarcastic tone I could conjure up.

Before I could really tear into him, something caught my eye, and I gasped.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Josh looked around, obviously confused.

A smile crept onto my face. I couldn’t help it. “Jay’s here,” I said smugly. I pointed towards the front of the restaurant. “He just walked in.”





Chapter Seventeen

Jay



Lizzy told me exactly where Kate had gone, and she’d confirmed that it was Josh she was having dinner with. Apparently, he’d shown up at her apartment earlier this morning, looking for Kate, and Lizzy had left them to chat when Kate returned.

When Lizzy had gone shopping with Kate later in the day, Kate had informed her of her plans to have dinner with Josh, and Lizzy had then made the decision to tell me.

I headed to the restaurant, and my hands balled into fists when I saw Kate talking to the smarmy-looking man across from her. He was wearing an arrogant smirk, and I could tell what he thought of her, even from a distance. Men like that weren’t to be trusted.

Not now, not ever.

“Hello,” I said, in the friendliest voice I could manage. “Kate, may I please speak with you?”

“Sure,” Kate said. She seemed relieved to see me, and as she slipped out of her chair, her companion glared at me.

“Just wait one minute, Kate,” he said in a reedy, nasal voice. “Wait just one minute before you go off with this jock.”

I felt a hot rush of anger in my chest as the prick continued. “Kate, you realize what a hypocrite you are, right?” He leaned back in his chair and glared at her. She was staring at him with her mouth open and her lovely dark hair hanging to one side. “Really nice of you to preach values about being strong to young women and then choose some dumb football player over me!”

Kate shook her head. “Josh, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said. She sounded tired, and I was overcome with the urge to pull her into my arms and shield her ears from whatever nonsense this asshole was spewing. “I’m not a hypocrite, and I haven’t chosen him over you. I didn’t choose you to begin with, Josh. I didn’t want you, and I still don’t want you. I thought you had accepted that. I thought that somehow, magically, we were going to be able to be friends, seeing as we have to work together, but obviously that’s not going to work out.”

Josh laughed. “That’s all pretty rich, coming from you. You should know, Kate. You’re the one who lectures young women about how to act. You should have known you were leading me on.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Kate raised her voice, but only slightly. She leaned down in Josh’s face. “I’ve talked about nothing but how much I don’t want you back! And how I was hoping we could be friends!”

“If you really wanted to be friends, you wouldn’t be on a date with me right now,” Josh sneered.

At this point, it was becoming abundantly clear that Lizzy had misinterpreted Kate earlier. This wasn’t a date at all, and Kate confirmed that a second later.

“This is not a date!” she said. “I told you a hundred times, I was just taking you to dinner to be nice, seeing as you flew all the way here, and we needed to talk about work. But screw being nice to you now, asshole!”

Josh stood up and tried to grab Kate. She squealed and jumped out of the way, and his hands came crashing down on the table.

Anger flooded my body and before I knew what I was doing, I stepped forward and swung one of my fists back behind my head. Josh gave me a dazed look, like a deer in the headlights, but he didn’t move; he was too slow. My fist collided with his face, and I felt cartilage snap beneath my fingers. When I pulled my hand away, it was dripping with Josh’s warm blood, and he winced and ducked down. At first I thought he was going to fight me, but he must have come to his senses because he was putting his hands up and backing away after only a few seconds.

“You know what, Kate?” Josh said, blood dripping down his face and over his chin. “Your secretary, Pammy? I slept with her. While we were dating. And the news from the head showrunner? He’s actually thinking of canceling your show.”

Kate immediately turned pale, and Josh grinned. The blood smeared over his teeth made him look like a madman. “That’s what I’ve really been wanting to tell you in person. Figured I’d at least see if I could get a decent fuck out of you first, though,” he added, sneering at both of us. “I hope the news finds you well, you stupid cunt.”